Skanska Property Poland has signed an agreement on the rights of perpetual usufruct, a right granting long-term use of real estate, on the land plot near Rondo ONZ in the business centre of Warsaw. Currently, the Ilmet office building is located on this plot. In addition, the company has bought the Warsaw One project, which was designed by the previous owner. In the transaction process the seller was advised by Knight Frank.

Rockcastle Global Real Estate has acquired a retail portfolio totalling 62,000 sqm from Aviva Investors, worth €160 million. Cushman & Wakefield, Hogan Lovells, Arcadis and PwC represented the purchaser, JLL, Dentons and Deloitte advised the seller in the transaction. The portfolio comprises two shopping centres: Focus Mall Zielona Góra and Focus Mall Piotrków Trybunalski. Providing respectively 26,800 sqm and 35,200 sqm, they are the largest shopping galleries in Zielona Góra and Piotrków Trybunalski. 

Prologis has completed the construction of a 22,200 square metre build-to-suit (BTS) facility for Arvato Polska leader in terms of complex outsourcing services at Prologis Park Stryków. CBRE facilitated this transaction. It is the second BTS project Prologis has launched this year at the park, and the third in Central Poland.  In the second quarter, Prologis started the construction of a 42,000 square metre facility for Agata at Piotrków Trybunalski and an 11,740 square metre BTS for German logistics operator Geis.

During the Q1-Q3 2016 period total commercial real estate investment transaction volume reached €1.5 billion in Hungary, nearly double the 2015 total volume, a testimony to the sharp liquidity increase – according to JLL Hungary’s latest statistics.The outstanding performance of the market was backed by the strong market fundamentals and the growing investor appetite for the high yielding Hungarian assets. Approximately 45% of the volume was generated by the office asset class followed by retail (29%) and logistics (14%). The remaining deals included a mix of hotel assets and properties for redevelopment purposes.

Six companies – Horizon Development, Wing, CBRE, CA Immo, JLL and TriGranit – were presented with Portfolio Property Awards at Property Investment Forum 2016 in Budapest. Portfolio acknowledged the Project of the Year, the Concept of the Year, the Leasing Transaction of the Year and the Investment Transaction of the Year for the seventh time.

Danfoss Power Solutions, a manufacturer and provider of hydraulics solutions, has renewed its lease for more than 20,000 sqm of industrial, office and social space at Hillwood Wrocław I. The tenant was represented in the negotiations by Cushman & Wakefield.

Hammerson plc and its partners in VIA Outlets, APG, Meyer Bergman and Value Retail, have signed an agreement to acquire, subject to regulatory clearance, four outlet centres across Europe. The retail venues, located close to major cities in Germany, Portugal, Spain and Poland, represent total gross asset value of €587 million and a blended net initial yield of 5.5%.  The transaction takes the total size of the VIA Outlets portfolio to €1.1 billion across 10 assets.

Prologis has begun construction of a speculative facility totalling 11,400 square metres at Prologis Park Wrocław V. Scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2017, the building is already 100-percent pre-leased, just one month after the start of construction.

Mentor Graphics Corporation, a manufacturer of design software and electronic equipment, has signed a lease agreement on 4 417 sqm in building B of Silesia Star in Katowice. The client was represented by Cushman & Wakefield in lease negotiations and the coordination and supervision of fit-out works in the new office.

During the third quarter, three new office buildings were completed with a total area of 39,570 sqm – reports JLL in their latest Budapest Office Market Pulse. The increasing development activity has had an effect on the vacancy rate as well: the Budapest office market’s vacancy rate made a slight increase to 10.9% as a result of the vacant space in the newly completed buildings and in the buildings from where the tenants moved out.